Welcome to the webbed and wired edition of R&R, aristotle. We’ll be doing the same sort of song and dance here as we do in print: reviewing the latest comics and cartoon-related books and ranting about trends and abuses and unfathomable foolishnesses. Each installment will stay here for about four weeks, with a new one coming in just about every other week or so. If you don’t have the time to ponder every punctuation mark in this deathless prose and merely want to see what might be there that would interest you, we suggest you scroll down the page looking for the bold-face type that heralds the notables who reside herein this week. So here we go with the Opus 222 (and a reprise of Opus 221):

Opus 222: New York Comic-Con, Superhero Summer, Ten-Cent Plague & Percy Gloom (April 28, 2008).

Opus 221: Superman’s Copyright Re-assigned, Editoon Pulitzer Winner & Evanier’s Kirby Book (April 13, 2008).

Opus 222 (April 28, 2008). Without giving a single thought to whether the triple-two of this Opus is significant in the annals of cartooning or the history of humankind, we devote most of the verbiage this time to a report on several facets of the 3^rd annual New York Comic-Con, the forthcoming Superhero Summer on the Silver Screen, and whether the much-touted Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare is authentic history, adequately researched, or just another spewing forth of excitable opinion. And more, much more—including reviews of several other books and a graphic novel, Percy Gloom. Here’s what’s here, in order, by department:

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Report on the New York Comic-Con

Then: Keith Knight gets a daily strip, Peter O’Donnell regrets at 88, Alan Moore and “The Watchmen” movie, graphic novel publisher jailed in Egypt, Chinese animation, Funky visit to The Birthplace, censorship at “The Simpsons,”Meanwhile nominated for an Eisner, Kemsley’s successor on Ginger Meggs, and—

Superhero Summer: peeks at the forthcoming blockbusters

COMIC STRIP WATCH

Celebrating Earth Day: Over the Hedge and some oddities

FUNNYBOOK FAN FARE

Anna Mercury and Doktor Sleepless reviewed

Classics Illustrated from Papercutz (Great Expectations) and Marvel (Dorian Gray, The Iliad)

BOOK MARQUEE

Mammoth Book of Best War Comics

The Complete Peanuts, Vols. 8 and 9

The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America

(Well, it didn’t; not that much)

—including a refutation of some of Hajdu’s erroneous thinking

The Complete Terry and the Pirates, Vol. 2

GRAFICUS NOVELIS

Percy Gloom reviewed

And our customary reminder: when you get to the $ubscriber/Associate Section (perusal of which is restricted to paid subscribers, as if you can’t tell for the initial cap in $ubscriber), don’t forget to activate the “Bathroom Button” by clicking on the “print friendly version” so you can print off a copy of just this lengthy installment for reading later, at your leisure while enthroned. Without further adieu—

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All the News That Gives Us Fits

Big Comics Doin’s at New York’s Jacob Javits Center

The New York Comic-Con, on its third outing, April 18-20, registered over 64,000 persons but managed it in much more efficient ways than last year, which left thousands standing on the sidewalks outside, unable to gain entrance to the already packed Javits Center. PW Comics Week reports that although there were 10,000 fans lined up on Saturday morning, waiting for the exhibit hall to open, show manager Lance Fensterman said show personnel were able to get them inside in about 20 minutes once the hall opened. The International Comic-Con in San Diego should take lessons. Fensterman acknowledged overcrowding in program areas of the Center, where sometimes thousands jammed the hallways, particularly when several well-attended sessions adjourned at the same time, but “public safety officials were impressed,” he said, “with the spread of people on the [exhibit] floor and there were no concerns about safety.” Although the Con could use more rooms for panel presentations and more theater space, it will return to Javits next year, February 6-8, in virtually the same space as it occupied this year. Reconfiguring the exhibit hall, said Fensterman, will permit more exhibits, but he didn’t say what might be done with the programming.

Thursday night found Stan Lee, a legend in his own time as co-creator of the Marvel Universe, accepting the Con’s first New York Comics Legend Award “at an exclusive party at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square,” reported Peter Sanderson at PW Comics Week. “Befitting Lee's stature in the medium,” Sanderson continued, “it took not one but three speakers to introduce him: comics writer Peter David, Virgin Comics CEO Sharad Devarajan, and Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada.” The award is intended to honor New Yorkers who have made major contributions to the comics medium, and although Lee has long been based in Los Angeles, he was born in New York City and grew up there, and it was in New York that he did his groundbreaking work at Marvel. “Noting that Lee had co-created so many world-famous characters, Quesada kidded him by running down a list of some of Lee's lesser lights, like the Porcupine, the Living Eraser, and the monster Googam. Son of Goom. But Quesada concluded that ‘Stan's greatest creation is Stan Lee,’ the persona that he devised for himself, which Quesada
compared to P.T. Barnum. ‘Thank you for being Stan Lee,’ he finished.”

Lee then arose to accept the Award and to assume the role he had invented, “Spider-Man 3" playing on videoscreens nearby. “As his fans would expect,” Sanderson said, “Lee took neither the award nor himself too seriously. ‘You want to hold that?’ he asked, passing the award to another person on the platform. In mock annoyance, he complained that Quesada had just badmouthed Googam and even the Porcupine: ‘One of my greatest creations! I'm saving him for a movie. I'll never let Quesada talk about me again.’ As for the award, ‘I think I'm very grateful for whatever that was,’ Lee told his amused audience. ‘I have to make some explanation to my wife— You traveled three thousand miles for that? Then Lee told the audience ‘Thanks a million! You've all been wonderful!’ But Lee remained a good while longer, moving through the large room, greeting the delighted fans surrounding him.”

At a panel the next day, reported Johnathan Hardick at the Express Times, Lee surprised an adoring multitude of over 600 with the announcement that he is returning to comics full-time as a writer and editor. He will create his first “original comic book characters” in more than 20 years for Virgin Comics. Asked what his biggest challenge might be, Lee said: “I don’t think it will be difficult at all. To me the easiest thing in the world is writing and editing. Editing is easy if I do the writing because I love what I write. I’m a big fan of me.” He’ll pick the artists he wants to work with, Lee added, saying “we have a lot of volunteers” already. As for the new comic books/characters, he has a few ideas: “I had ten that I quickly jotted down but by the time we get to it, [it] will be complete different.” Typical Stan Lee—a flurry of notions, most of which are, doubtless, but half-formed, just the sort of antics that built the fabled House of Ideas (i.e., Marvel Comics, in case you’ve forgotten). “I had something in mind,” he went on, “but when I saw the teaser poster, it was completely different than what I had been thinking. But I find it kind of fascinating, so I may create something new based on the poster.” Sounds exactly like the way he co-created the Marvel Universe: tossed an idea at an artist, then when the artist delivered pages that looked “completely different” than what Lee thought he’d proposed, he created something else with words to go with the pictures. We’ll all wait on tenterhooks here at the Intergalactic Rancid Raves Wurlitzer, but I very much fear that Stan Lee’s creative inspirations are still too rooted in the 1960s to work well today: today’s comics audience is much more sophisticated than even his college-age readers were then. But we’ll see. And we’ll keep our fingers crossed.

Kai-Ming Cha and Bridgid Alverson at PW Comics Week proclaimed the New York Comic-Con “Manga Country,” adding that “San Diego may host the show with the biggest Hollywood presence, but this past weekend New York showed that it is still book country. With Random House, Hachette, Harry Abrams, HarperCollins and other trade book publishers in attendance,” they continued, “the New York Comic-Con had the feel of a publishing trade show buoyed by charged consumer exuberance of comics and pop culture fans.” But manga was The Presence: “There were big announcements by Viz Media and Del Rey; plans for a new line of color graphic novels by Tokyopop and a new content deal between Japanese publisher Square Enix and Yen Press. ... Viz Media announced a joint project with Stan Lee and Shaman King creator Takei that was launched in Japan over the weekend and will eventually hit American shores. ... [And] Tokyopop launched a new imprint, Tokyopop Graphic Novels, which will be a line of full-color graphic novels by manga-inspired creators from around the world. Publisher Mike Kiley anticipates the line will have cross-over appeal with American comics readers.”

But a small cloud has gathered on the sunny manga horizon. At a session on “Emerging Trends in Manga Retailing, panelists argued that “the trend [in comic book stores] is to carry fewer manga titles even as the number of releases steadily increases.” Said James Crocker, managing partner at Modern Myths in Northampton, Mass.: “We used to carry a whole lot of manga until chain stores started selling a lot.” Crocker and his fellow panelists, all operators of comic book stores, haven’t the shelf space to devote to the current flow of manga, and although manga apparently sell well enough in chain stores, they don’t move that well in comic book shops.

But the comic book business is clearly growing. According to an analysis conducted by ICv2 and presented at the NYCC, the U.S. retail graphic novel market reached $375 million in sales in 2007, up around 12% over 2006 sales. The periodical comic [comic book] market was $330 million in 2007, bringing the combined 2007 comic and graphic novel market to $705 million for the U.S. and Canada. Comics were up from $310 million the year before; the total was up roughly 10% from 2006 numbers. Graphic novels once again gained share of the business, increasing from a 52% to a 53% of the total. Manga sales were up only about 5%, “the lowest growth rate for manga since ICv2 began tracking sales.” Sales through bookstores were up by a mid-single digit rate, but direct market sales of manga declined 5-10%, “due to a reduced emphasis on the category by comic stores, a significant percentage of whom cut back on manga floor space in response to the growing number of releases and the increased difficulty in choosing between them. ... Another factor in the slowing manga growth rate may have been increased competition from publishers of American graphic novel material for space in stores. American ‘genre’ (superhero, science fiction, fantasy, horror) releases climbed 31% in 2007, to 1268 releases from 965 in 2006, according to the ICv2 white paper. Manga releases also climbed, to 1513 new releases in 2007, up 25% from 1208 in 2006. Over-all, there were 3,391 graphic novels released to the trade last year, according to numbers compiled by ICv2 from release lists provided by Diamond Comic Distributors, up 22% from 2006's 2,785 releases.”

Late Saturday afternoon the teaser trailer for Lionsgate Films' forthcoming film “Will Eisner's The Spirit” unrolled in its “world premiere” (as they say in the glitteratti biz) with cartoonist turned screenwriter/director Frank Miller, actress Eva Mendes, and producers Michael Uslan and Deborah Del Prete in attendance. According to an online mtv source, the teaser “fused the look of Eisner's classic comics series with Miller's Sin City movie, as a silhouetted Spirit raced across the rooftops of a film noir cityscape of blacks and grays, accented by the bright red of the Spirit's tie.” The filming of the actors has been completed, but the movie will not be ready for release until early 2009 because of the “long post-production process of creating the computer-generated backgrounds and other special effects, like the Sin City films, adapting to the screen the visual style of the comics artist,” here, both Will Eisner's art style and Miller's own. “Del Prete noted that Miller not only provided copies of Eisner's work to other people working on the film, but that ‘We had Frank there drawing on the set at all times.’” Miller said he loved directing movies, and he expects other comics artists to join the club. "Slowly, steadily, the inmates are taking over the asylum," he said. But Miller is still happy to work in comics. In addition to collaborating with Jim Lee on All Star Batman and Robin, Miller said he’s completed "122 pages of my next graphic novel," the title of which, he said, he could not yet reveal.

Neil Gaiman, called these days a “comic book legend,” was on hand to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which, reports Jennifer Vineyard at mtv.com, “just won a case that Gaiman has been championing for the past three years” ... To Find Out Exactly What That Case Was AND, What’s More, What Indecorous Way Over the Hedge Celebrated Earth Week, How Warren Ellis Didn’t Quite Cut it with His Latest, How Newsweek Screwed up Reviewing Classics Illustrated, What Seth Intended in His Design of the Complete Peanuts, What the Introductory Matter in the Latest Volume of the Complete Terry and the Pirates Is Missing, How David Hajdu Is Misrepresenting Comics History in the Ten-cent Plague, and What Percy Gloom Really Means, —and More, Much More— You’ll Have to Hie Thee Thither to the $ubscriber/Associate Section, Where You’ll Get More of Our News Reports and Penetrating Analysis. To Get There, Click HERE And if you're not a $ubscriber/Associate—

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